I've just returned from 3 days on the beautiful island of Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands. The Channel Islands are part of Britain, but are very proud of their independence. They use British pounds but have their own notes and coins, and use a different system of governance. The Channel Islands are of particular interest to me, being a history buff, as they were the only British territory to be occupied by the Germans during WWII.
I stayed at the picturesque Auberge Du Val, a B&B that I would recommend to anyone. It's run by a mad Italian called Fernando, who would gladly walk upon hot coals to accomodate the whims of his guests. It's set in a peaceful valley in St Saviours, and has beautiful gardens complete with a babbling brook running through it. After bustling London, I thought I was in Paradise!
Guernsey is very beautiful - and in the words of Fiona "is like NZ but with English houses". The beaches are great, and the fusion between French and English influences is evident everywhere, especially in the architecture. It's full of stone cottages, cobbled streets and narrow country lanes - just the thing for a relaxing time. They have an excellent bus system in summer for an island of 22,000 people. I went around the entire island for a mere 60p. I was, as always outside of London, struck by the friendliness of the locals and the good service (in London retail staff will seldom stop chatting with each other to serve you). If you want to live there though, you'd better be plenty rich. Non Islanders pay exorbitantly more to rent and buy property. A one bedroom flat here would set you back around £200,000.It's very hilly, like Wellington, and most people walk everywhere, so I certainly got plenty of exercise. I went to Castle Cornet, which is situated at the mouth of the harbour which was first built in the 13th C, and was home to the Royal Guernsey Militia up until recent years. They still fire off the Noon Day Gun. The shops are really cool and generally swanky and upmarket, but there's a great cafe vibe to St Peter Port, the island's capital. I rate the Victorian Parlour highly - nice aniseed lollies.
The Guernsey Museum is also amazingly good and was quite informative about the history of the island and it's more famous residents. Victor Hugo was exiled there and was where he penned 'Les Miserables' which I still refuse to read as I love the musical so much...
I visited loads of places, the details of which I won't bore you with - visit for yourself! But the best places were the German Occupation Museum and the La Valette Military Museum. As I mentioned, Guernsey was occupied by the Nazis during WWII and as such, was left with a plethora of WWII memorabilia when they surrendered, so the collections of both museums are vast and fascinating. You name it, they have it. Nazi uniforms, guns, artillery, underground bunkers, propaganda, cutlery, stationery, souvenirs carved by the soldiers etc.They are both surprisingly pretty unbiased - not really portraying the Germans as Nazi monsters nor overly glamorising the resistance of the Islanders. For instance, you can see a poster warning the soldiers not to touch or damage the historical artifacts in the town hall in any way, and many of the school children reported that the soldiers were very kind to them as they missed their own kids. For me it is the stories of the Islanders themselves that are of most interest, as they were placed in a unique situation as British citizens. Any form of resistance could have severe reprisals (one woman was sent to prison for months in Germany for answering a 'Heil Hitler' with a 'Heil Churchill'), and Guernseymen were executed as examples to others, but at the same time, any cooperation with the Germans was viewed harshly by most of the Islanders and to be labelled a collaborator would have been a harsh fate in such a tight-knit community.
Kiwis and Canadians are very welcome to Guernsey. At the end of 1944 the whole island (including the Germans) were in danger of starving and they appealed to the Red Cross for help. Just before Christmas the SS Vega made the risky journey to St Peter Port carrying parcels of food from NZ and Canada which probably did save the lives of many people. The local schoolchildren made it their mission to find out as much as they could about the countries that these 'parcels of providence' had come from, and their letters of thanks to our respective governments are very funny and touching. The chocolate seemed to be a recurring theme...
Anyway, Guernsey is lovely and I'm keen to visit Jersey now. Stay tuned.
